To anyone only reading certain news articles, it might seem like the top minds in artificial intelligence disagree about whether AI safety is a concern worth studying.

But on Science Friday yesterday, guests Stuart Russell, Eric Horvitz, and Max Tegmark all emphasized how much agreement there was.

Horvitz, head of research at Microsoft, has sometimes been held up as a foil to Bill Gates’ worries about superintelligence. But he made a point to say that the reported disagreements are overblown:

“Let me say that Bill and I are close, and we recently sat together for quite a while talking about this topic. We came away from that meeting and we both said: You know, given the various stories in the press that put us at different poles of this argument (which is really over-interpretation and amplifications of some words), we both felt like we were in agreement that there needs to be attention focused on these issues. We shouldn’t just march ahead in a carefree manner. These are real interesting and challenging concerns about potential pitfalls. Yet I come away from these discussions being – as people know me – largely optimistic about the outcomes of what machine intelligence – AI – will do for humanity in the end.”

It’s good to see the public conversation moving so quickly past “Are these concerns legitimate?” and shifting toward “How should we handle these legitimate concerns?”

Click here to listen to the full episode of Science Friday.